Thursday, January 25, 2018

North Carolina: 11-mile trail in works at Carvers Creek State Park

After climbing out of her Ford F-150 pickup, Carvers Creek State Park Superintendent Jane Conolly ambled along the old logging road, what’s probably a firebreak to slow or stop the progress of a wildfire.

Acres of undeveloped land — much of it a watershed of Carvers Creek that the state parks system has preserved — lay around her on this warm Monday afternoon.

On each side of the sandy, dirt road where Conolly walked, pine straw blanketed the sloping ground that eventually reaches a creek and wetlands area where hardwoods grow in abundance. From where Conolly soon stopped, pine trees dotted the woodland, their trunks charred from a controlled burn in May.

“It’s beautiful,” Conolly said.

As soon as early 2019, pedestrians, bicyclists and horseback riders should be able to appreciate the natural beauty of this section of the park, too...